Write a MemorableScreenplay that Leaves People Talking
Private Coaching in Screenwriting with Accomplished Hollywood Screenwriter, Elana Golden
Writing a script is a magical journey in which intuition, imagination, craft, and the love of storytelling come together to create the spine and foundation for a movie.
For New and Experienced Screenwriters
You
Do you have an idea for a script, a few pages written, or a first draft that needs work? Is your story still a bit vague, do your characters and their world need more dimension, is the dialogue too subtle or too ?on the nose??
Me
I am committed to share with you my knowledge, expertise, and ideas in all aspects of screenwriting, to inspire and guide you as you write the script that you desire to write. I will keep your story confidential and hold it with great respect.
The Alchemy
When you bring your ideas and I offer feedback, something better than either one of us could think of on our own will emerge. Wherever in the process you are, in the alchemy between us, you will be inspired and jazzed to write a great script.
I am passionate about films that are profound in meaning, and are steeped in universal and timeless subtext. Films that shed light on our world, our humanity and inhumanity, revealing personal and collective struggles, and the ever powerful need to be free. Films that touch the heart and evoke the soul… Films that matter.
They all start with a great script!
1 THE TRIANGLE OF CHARACTER, PLOT & THEME
Coaching Includes Helping You Write:
- Characters that have life, idiosyncratic behaviors and attitudes, and palpable needs and goals.
- A structure that is strong enough to bend in the wind but will not break.
- A conflict that forces your characters to meet their deepest fears and unexpected power.
- Dialogue that is true to life.
- A finished script with archetypal depth that will keep the reader turning pages.
2 APPLICABLE TO ALL MOVIE GENRES
How it Works
New Screenwriters
If you have an idea for a script, but have never written one before, I will teach you the art and craft of screenwriting from scratch. We will start by watching and analyzing an acclaimed film. I will guide you in creating the structure for your script, its characters and theme. You?ll develop your characters until they are flesh and blood, breathing and thinking, until they tell you how your story should go. You may not believe it, but you will write a script and have epiphany after epiphany that will take you by surprise after surprise.
Experienced Screenwriters
If you have written scripts before, and now have a draft that requires feedback and guidance, I will help you reshape and deepen it, and make it great. We will go over it Act by Act, scene by scene, line by line?polishing it with a fine-tooth comb.
3 ONE-ON-ONE COACHING
The Process
- Whether you?re a new or experienced screenwriter, we meet one-on-one, weekly, or bi-monthly at my home-office in Hollywood, in sessions of 2.5 hours. If you do not live in the Los Angeles area, we meet on Skype or Zoom.
- We divide the screenplay into four parts, beginning with Act 1, and in each session work on the subsequent part, until you write the words ?The End.?
- In between sessions, you write pages on your own.
- I read your pages ahead of our next meeting and prepare to give you feedback and further guidance as needed.
- In this method, you can write a first draft in 6 to 8 weeks. Or rewrite a script in 4 to 6 weeks or less.
- At the end of our work together, your script will be ready to be sent out.
The space I provide is confidential and safe. I will invite you to dare, to make mistakes, to be ridiculous, original, and brilliant. Only then will the true gold of your script emerge.
Elisabeth Loesch
Screenwriter, novelist, Geneva, Switzerland.
I received Elana Golden’s review of my script Anna’s Waltz? in a coaching session via Skype. It was very thorough and insightful, and I was thrilled to see that she was truly interested in my story, not just doing her job. It is an enriching experience for a screenwriter to have a well-trained story-eye analyze your work, especially when it comes from a place of compassion and respect. Elana enabled me to improve my story whilst keeping my vision in mind. I believe that most of my colleagues will agree with me, this is rare and invaluable. Thank you so much, Elana!
4 PAID IN ADVANCE OR IN INSTALLMENTS
FEES
$700 to read your script and meet you for a 2-hour consultation in person, Skype or Zoom.$1850 to coach you on a first draft?includes 6 one-on-one sessions.$1250 for any subsequent draft.
BONUS
When you sign up to work with me as your coach, you?ll also be invited to come to any of my weekly group classes in creative writing to workshop your scenes.
5 PROFESSIONAL & EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
WHO I AM
I am the founder and director of The Writing Studioa Los Angeles based school for creative writing and screenwriting. For the past 18 years I
have taught thousands of classes, workshops, and private sessions to hundreds of writers from around the world, coaching them on screenplays, novels, memoirs, and short stories.
I have written many scripts, usually positioning a personal story against a sociopolitical/historical background. My latest, The Weaver of Bucharest?an uplifting female driven World War II drama?was selected to be workshopped at DreamAgo, a Sundance-like film institute in Switzerland, and is now in the early stage of production.
I studied screenwriting with Syd Field, Tom Schlesinger, and Dora Marks; trained as a director with Milton Katslelas and Jeffrey Tambor at The Beverly Hills Playhouse; and worked on 40 feature films as script supervisor and consultant. I have a BFA from the New York University Film School and an MA in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. My short film, The Open Window, won grants and awards. Fusing my education with my professional experience, I developed a unique method for coaching screenwriting.
6 A PIECE OF ADVICE
Seven Things to Consider Before Starting
- Trust your impulse and commit to finishing your script.
- Come up with a title, even if temporary?it will give you a feel and a direction.
- Jot down your story in one, two, or three simple sentences.
- Be open to the unknown and the unexpected.
- Writing a script is a process so relax, and don’t try to know the whole story beforehand.
- Hold your idea tight. Don’t talk about it to too many people, especially those who may be critical or cynical.
- Find one or two people who will root for you no matter what.
I look forward to working with you!
Sincerely yours,
Elana GoldenLos Angeles, CA
Thank you so much, Elana!
Michael Vaccaro
Actor, screenwriter, Los Angeles, CA
Elana Golden was a tremendous help to me. I am a first-time screenwriter and wrote a script based on a real-life experience I’d had. I showed it to Elana and we met for a coaching session. She immediately zoned in on what was working and what was not, and how I could improve the script all around. She truly brought it to life! It was a magical experience working with her. I am now working on the 2nd draft and will continue to work with Elana as my coach. I highly recommend her to anyone interested in making their screenplay better?much better!
Caroline Garner McSweeny
Novelist, screenwriter, Los Angeles, CA.
Elana Golden is the kind of writing coach who will push your work to greatness. She will guide you gently but frankly in the way each writer wants to work, giving more guidance, or less. What is clear after working through sessions with her on a novel manuscript or screenplay project, is that you, as a writer in the midst of a piece, will learn whether a concept and the characters will stand and become great – or, even collapse to rise again in another form. Many, many successful writers say they’ll allow themselves to write badly in a first draft. Elana makes it easy to see one’s work clearly and to push out of bad into much better.
Mimi Fuenzalida
Director, cinematographer, editor, London, UK.
I worked with Elana privately on a screenplay. I had never written a screenplay nor did I have a clue as to how to proceed about it. I am absolutely impressed with the way Elana showed me, step by step, how to deconstruct a story to its bare bones to find the structure of the script so that I could then, begin to write it. Elana’s care and dedication to my needs was instrumental to my writing and finishing my script. I highly recommend.